I wrote a post few days ago sharing the late Adrian Rogers' website. It is uncanny to me how often his words speak right to my heart and touch me with encouragement and inspiration at the exact time I need to hear them. I have to share what came in last night that I read this morning:
BE AN ENCOURAGER
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Somebody has well said that discouragement is a dark room where the negatives of fear and failure are developed. There are some who are encouragers and others who are discouragers. Have you ever met a discourager? They're like a drink of water to a drowning man. They can brighten up a room by leaving it. They leave you drained and depressed. But an encourager leaves you full and refreshed. God has cornered the market on encouragement. All encouragement comes from God. You're never more like God than when you're encouraging people and never more like the devil than when you are discouraging people.
ACTION POINT:
Find a needy person and enrich him; a lonely person and include him; a misunderstood person and affirm him; an undiscovered person and develop him; a failing person and restore him." LWF
So what exactly is an encourager? According to my fingertip AOL dictionary, encourage means: "1.) to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope as in hearten. 2.) to spur on or stimulate. 3.) to give help or patronage to, as in Foster. Encourage means to fill with courage or strength of purpose. Encourage suggests the raising of one's confidence especially by an external agency (i.e. The teacher's praise encouraged the students to greater efforts.)"
So, today my goal is to remain sensitive to God's leading to a needy and lonely person. To include him. To affirm a misunderstood person. To seek to develop an undiscovered person and to restore a failing person. As I consider the heartaches and broken moments of my life, I am so hungry to feed on the Word of God and gain the highest form of encouragement that I might be a comfort to others as I have been comforted. How about you? selahV
[© SelahV Today, 2008]
